Anti-virus vulnerabilities strike again

McAfee follows Symantec, Trend et al on patch bandwagon

By John Leyden • Get more from this author

Posted in Software & Security, 18th March 2005 11:07 GMT

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Users of McAfee’s anti-virus products were warned this week of a potentially serious security vulnerability. The bug - unearthed by security researchers at ISS - involves flaws in the processing of LHA files by an antivirus library that gives rise to possible stack overflow attacks. The flaw applies to McAfee AntiVirus Library prior to version 4400.

"Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could be used to gain unauthorized access to networks and machines being protected by McAfee AntiVirus Library product," ISS warns.

Desktop, server and gateway versions of McAfee's anti-virus scanners all need patching but this will happen automatically as anti-virus signatures are updated. Several large vendors and ISP's use McAfee's AntiVirus Library in their products or services, which likewise need an upgrade.

Over recent weeks ISS has issued alerts over similar but distinct vulnerabilities in various security packages from Symantec, involving the processing of UPX compressed files; and anti-virus products from F-Secure and Trend Micro, both involving the handling of ARJ archive files. ®